Imprinted with the Obsessive Male Lead - Chapter 28

Even so, Nita’s back looked precarious. Her hair and robe swayed, her dress fluttered, and her ankles were revealed and hidden over and over. With a body that looked like it would topple over with just a slight push, she walked alone toward the pitch-black mana and finished the purification.

‘See! I’m fine, right?’

Then, as if a puppy were showing off a trick to its owner and hoping for praise, she looked at him, beamed brightly, and bounced lightly.

No matter how much he thought about it again, it was absurd.
And so he couldn’t avoid the gaze that stared straight up at him with those large eyes, and because their eyes met, the words he had tried to ignore came back to mind.

‘My brother will kill me.’
‘Because my stalker is going to kill me.’

What followed was the memory of the marks of wounds that had filled her nape and arms.

To be honest, at first he thought the Grace side had deliberately sent her in that state. Nita was famous for being an incompetent, and that fact would obviously come out with even a simple investigation, so perhaps they intended to provoke sympathy so that she couldn’t be turned away. There was also the fact that it was hard to believe that an adult woman had been subjected to such severe abuse.

Even conceding a lot and assuming that, since she had grown up being mistreated, the abuse was somewhat true, he had also thought that the threats about being killed or the story about a stalker were excuses Nita made because she didn’t want to return to her family.

‘But if that were true, then were they insane bastards? What would they gain from killing that frail twig of a thing?’

The moment that thought crossed his mind, a sweet cherry scent drifted in with the wind. The owner of that scent was Nita Grace, holding down her fluttering hair and smiling brightly under the sunlight.

Chase slowly opened his eyes.

“She’s a woman we’re going to send back anyway. Even if there had been some conflict, we shouldn’t have brought her.”

Muttering to himself, he roughly swept his hair back once more.

Could that woman endure the north? Could she really live on this land? With that weak body? If she became healthy, then what? Even then, would sending her back still be the right choice?

The questions didn’t stop, noisily filling his mind.

‘Cold-blooded.’

Even after hearing such things, he couldn’t make a rational judgment.

Annoying.
He didn’t know why, but from one to ten, she was a woman who irritated him.

As Chase tried to find the cause of the inexplicable irritation surging up within him, his gaze turned toward the portrait of his mother.

In that instant, the surroundings grew quiet. Chase silently stared at the portrait with an unreadable gaze. Soon, a sneer formed at the corner of his lips.

“What on earth am I even worrying about right now?”

‘If she becomes healthy.’ Such a hypothesis was completely useless. The answer was already decided.

The purpose of bringing in a mage was not protection, but to use them.

Chase had the right to bring the mage he wanted. Nita Grace was the weakness of the Grace family. Rather, by using Nita’s information, he could easily bring in the Empire’s greatest purification mage, Vivian Grace. A mage who was perfect in many ways and could be used for a long time. Her older sister.

If he sent Nita back, he might feel a bit of guilt, but the north would recover as time passed, and the people of the territory would be satisfied.

Then he would no longer feel this uncomfortable emotion toward Nita. It would be better than keeping her here and watching that frail body suffer. Even if her family circumstances were true, he could simply pretend not to know and forget about it.

From the beginning, he had no obligation to take responsibility for such things. What he had to take responsibility for was not Nita Grace, but the people of his territory who might turn into monsters due to mana, and the contaminated land of the north.

It was a simple and easy conclusion.

“Vivian Grace is the right choice.”

A woman recognized even within the Mage Tower for her remarkable purification ability, healthy, and known for her gentle personality. Without a doubt, she was the person he had wanted. Close enough with her family to attend even the Imperial Crown Prince’s evening ball together…

However, as Chase absentmindedly went over the evaluation of her that had spread among the public, his brows furrowed.

‘Wasn’t that a bit strange? Could a woman with such a kind personality not know that her only younger sister was being abused?’

Chase’s mind was once again filled with Nita. Lost in deep thought, he couldn’t move until the sun had completely set, the sunset faded, and the moon rose.

***